The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-03-05
Fraternally
Functional Diseases of Alcohol.

FuncCl0nal Diseases OF ALCOHOL.
A large part of the population of
the world is suffering from the effects
OF alcohol. Recent statistics in Eng
land prove that of all deaths IA per
cent are caused indirectly and per
cent directly from alcohol.
One of the classifications of diseas.
es is into functional and organic; the
first being a lowered condition of
health through the altered nervous
supply; the latter being the same
condition through some change in the
vital organs themselves. This article
will refer briefly TO some of the func-
tional effects of alcohol.
The man who has habituated him.
self to alcohol up to the first degree,
finds in it daily necessity. He
awakes in the morning unrefreshed
and prefers morning dram to his
breakfast. AS the day advances the
Nervous sy stem feels feeble. the mind
is dull, the muscles grow tired, and
another drink is required. The ac-
ton is followed by reaction and after
the glow has subsidized and the artifi-
cial strength is expended, the same
| necessity occurs again, and thus it
goes, the alcohol taking the place of
food, the natural nourishment of the
body. Hundreds of thousands of
people are living in this unnatural
way.
Dyspeptic symptoms are among
the first in which the evil effects of
alcohol are seen. The stomach and
entire alimentary canal are surcharg-
ed with gas and and annoying fatu-
lencv results. The bowels become
irregular. The kidneys do not secrete
naturally, sometimes acting too much
and at other times too little. Sleep
also becomes irregular, at one time
an OverpOWering stupOr at night Oc-
curing, or else being deficient, re.
sulting ia nervous, irritable condi-
ton by day and wakeful worrying
feeling by night.
Later on sensory disturbances &C
cur. Ringing, buzzng noises fill the
head; a continual thum ping is going
on in the brain; black spots come
and 60 before the eyes; all these an
noying symptoms arising from the
irregular action of the heart and
blood vessels. These things may
happen at times in the usually healthy
man. but they are the constant and
usual effects of too free and habitua
use of alcohol.
AT this stage, also, the surface of
the body shows some of the bad eff
fects of the habit. The calibre of the
small vessels being so frequently con-
tracted and relaxed, they lose their
tone, and the red nose, flushed cheek,
suffused eye, pimply eruptlons,
clammy skin, sometimes dry and
again covered with profuse perspir.
alton, mark the tippler even to an in
experienced observer.
An undue thirst is another symp-
tom that is never absent. Mrs. Part.
ington w as sure, in her simplicity,
that Isaac never drank any at night
because he always wanted big glass
of water early in the morning. AL
cOhol has great natural affinity for
water, and the tissues of the body
that are soaked with alcohol keep re.
curing an inordinate supply ofwater.
Such body naturally deteriorates
grows gross. its secretory organs are
overtaxed, its stomach distended, its
heart enfeebled, its muscles relaxed,
and the whole nervous system loses
its tone and activity.
Such man feels every change in
the weather. and sufferes readily from
govt, rheumatic and neuralgia pains.
His whole system is relaxed, and
his life is liable to be suddenly snuff
ed out by some acute disease. Pneu-
monia, the most fatal.Ot all diseases,
and one that has the highest percent
age of mortality, except consumption,
rarely. if eyer, spares the habituaI
drinker.
Such man may never be drunk,
though regularly drinking, and may
keep consoling himselfby the thought
that he is hot a drunkard like his
neighbor. The picture Is II sad one,
but true one. and AN unfortunately
common one. - Wheeling LnteliiQencer.
The familiar word "dun." which
80 many people have tried to trace to